Try as she might, Tansy did not seem to be able to rid herself of the mental image of Hermione lying frozen across the corridor with her blank, glassy eyes staring at the ceiling. Hermione had gone and Tansy could only ask herself where she had gone to? Where did Petrified people go? Was it like being asleep or unconscious? Finally, after sitting staring into space all afternoon and all evening, she retired upstairs to her dormitory but she found that she couldn't sleep and every few seconds she had to open her eyes to check Hermione's empty bed. Deciding that sleep wasn't going to come, she wandered back down to the common room with her Transfiguration notes.
'Tansy? What are you doing here? We thought you'd gone to bed.' Tansy jumped hugely, her heart skipping, and looked around wildly as Harry and Ron emerged from under the invisibility cloak.
'Don't do that!' She scolded weakly, trying to slow her speeding heart.
'Sorry,' Harry replied, not looking at all sorry.
'What are you two up to anyway?' She asked suspiciously, eyeing the invisibly cloak and their guilty expressions.
'We're going to talk to Hagrid; if he opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago then he'll know how to get inside it. It's a start at least.'
'You don't honestly believe it's him?' Tansy asked, standing up.
Harry shook his head and waved his hand impatiently.
'Of course not, but just finding out how to get inside is a start. Come on.'
The journey through the darkened castle wasn't fun and Tansy was relieved when they finally reached the moonlit lawn. The walked nimbly across the damp grass and Tansy couldn't help but wonder whether they left footprints and kept glancing back over her shoulder. The thin silvery light made the castle behind her look horribly eerie and she shuddered; there was someone or something living inside among the students that had just attacked her best friend.
Hagrid was strangely jumpy; he greeted them with a crossbow which made Tansy scream and then proceeded to make them tea so haphazardly that Tansy hurried forward to help him. A loud, echoing knock on the door made her start so suddenly that she dropped the teapot she was holding. It bounced off her foot before smashing against the cold tiles and she winced.
'Come on…' Harry pulled her away from the mess and fumbled for the invisibility cloak. The three friends backed into a corner and had only just covered themselves with the invisibility cloak when Hagrid opened the door. Dumbledore and a small, portly man wearing a lime-green bowler hat walked into the cabin.
'That's dad's boss, Cornelius Fudge.' Ron said in an undertone and Tansy stepped on his foot to make him shut up – she'd always imagined that Dumbledore had super-human senses and was therefore likely to be able to hear even the smallest of whispers. Had she imagined it or had the headmaster's cornflower blue eyes flicked to the corner where they were hiding as soon as he entered the cabin?
'Ah Hagrid, bad business… very bad business… had to come… Ministry's got to act…' Fudge said awkwardly, fiddling with his bowler hat in the pauses between words. For someone who should be used to dealing with stressful situations, he seemed very tense and flustered.
'I never... Professor Dumbledore, sir…' Hagrid said imploringly and Tansy's heart wrenched at the tone of his voice. Dumbedore hastened to back him up but Fudge refused to be swayed.
'Look at it from my point of view…' He began and Tansy felt a fiery rush of anger that made her lose track of the conversation for a few seconds; the Ministry were arresting Hagrid as a scapegoat! It was Ron's turn to step on her foot because she had huffed loudly. Luckily a second, louder knock on the cabin door had covered up her indignant noise. Mr Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy's father, strode into the small cabin and Tansy retreated slightly as Hagrid made a furious move towards the new arrival; there was something about him that made her skin crawl although she didn't know why. Mr Malfoy snidely explained why he was there, before turning to Dumbledore.
'Dreadful thing Dumbledore…' He began lazily, producing a roll of parchment from an inside pocket of his cloak. '…but the governors feel that it's time for you to step aside. This is an Order of Suspension – you'll find all twelve signatures on it.' Fortunately both Hagrid and Fudge objected to this statement which covered up the three noises of protest from the corner.
'Yeh can' take Dumbledore!' Hagrid roared and Tansy nodded vigorously in agreement, before remembering that nobody could see her. 'The muggle-borns won' stand a chance! They'll be killin's next!'
Dumbledore put a calming hand on Hagrid's shaking shoulders but it did nothing to quell Tansy's thumping heart. She could hear it in her throat and ears and it seemed impossible that the adults couldn't hear it too. She felt herself swaying slightly and both the boys grabbed her by the elbows, seemingly afraid that she was about to fall over.
'If the governors want my removal, Lucius, I shall of course step aside.' Tansy felt herself go numb with horror. 'But…' Dumbledore continued speaking extremely slowly and clearly, and looked pointedly at the corner where the three friends stood hidden. '…you will find that I will only truly have left the school when none here are loyal to me. Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.' With that, he strode out of the cabin, followed by Malfoy and Fudge. Hagrid, however, paused in the doorway and took a deep breath.
'If anyone wanted to find out some stuff, all they'd have ter do would be ter follow the spiders. That'd lead 'em right.' With that, he too left the cabin, and the door swung shut behind him with a bang.
Tansy pulled off the invisibility cloak, before the voices of the adults had even faded out of earshot; her eyes were bright and she was pale and shaking and Harry and Ron looked at her with concern.
'That's it!' She began vehemently, 'we're in trouble now! How could they think that forcing Dumbledore to leave would help? We must be governed by a bunch of imbecilic idiots!'
Ron nodded in agreement, 'they'll be an attack a day with him gone.'
May turned slowly to June and the atmosphere in the school grew more and more tense and worried. Tansy missed Hermione terribly, especially seeing as she was forced to spend hours and hours revising for her upcoming Transfiguration OWL. She knew that Hermione would've spent the time reading and revising with her, but the boys, confined to Gryffindor tower like the rest of them, were continuously playing loud games of wizard's chess and exploding snap which was both distracting and annoying.
Although the crowded common room was stuffy and claustrophobic, the strict rules and curfews that Professor McGonagall had put in place after the double attack meant that at least she was getting plenty of revision done. Unfortunately they also meant that she couldn't visit Hermione in the hospital wing and it was several weeks before she plucked up the courage to ask Professor McGonagall for permission. The teacher had just escorted the class to the great hall for dinner and Tansy hung back. She glanced around to ensure that they were alone and opened her mouth.
'What is it Miss Laverstock?' The teacher had noticed her deliberations. Close-to Tansy could see that she looked drawn and worried and wondered if she ought to continue after all.
'I…' Another group of students, escorted by Snape, arrived from the dungeons just as she began to speak and Tansy felt her throat close around the words. She let out a strangled cough and bushed.
'Come over here, Miss Laverstock.' Professor McGonagall had apparently noticed the young witch's embarrassment and she led her over to a quieter part of the entrance hall. 'What is it?' She asked again and Tansy was finally able to stammer out her request.
The day of her exam finally dawned and Tansy, who had spent a sleepless night in various stages of panic, was escorted down to breakfast by Percy; the prefects and teachers were on a shepherding rota, ferrying students to and from the great hall at breakfast and dinner times. Harry and Ron were already at the Gryffindor table when she arrived. Both were looking tired and preoccupied and were talking in whispers.
'What's the matter?' She asked, pulling a tureen of porridge towards her and ladling some into a bowl.
'Nothing, nothing…' Harry did not quite meet her eyes and he sounded tense but she really wasn't in the mood to press the point. Instead she opened Intermediate Transfiguration and propped it up against the milk jug, trying to do some last minute cramming. After breakfast, she waited in the entrance hall with the fifth and seventh years, ignoring some of the inquiring looks coming her way. Professor McGonagall finally opened the door to let them re-enter the great hall, which had been transformed into an examination room complete with desks, stacks of spare parchment and a giant hour glass. She smiled at Tansy as she sat down at her desk and Tansy tried to return it but the muscles in her face didn't seem to be working properly so she only managed a grimace.
Professor McGonagall waited until everyone was sat down and quiet before she said:
'You may begin,' and turned over the hourglass.
Tansy took a few deep breaths and, with shaking hands, turned over the exam paper and began to read the first question. (1. a) Give the name of a witch or wizard who can morph him/herself into an animal at will and b) give the spell that will force such a wizard, when in his animal form, to back transform.) Her nerves vanishing in an instant, she smiled, picked up her quill and began to write.
They were called in one by one for the practical part of their examination that afternoon. Tansy was given a wizened old witch called Professor Marchbanks and actually found it quite enjoyable after her initial internal battle with her voice. When Tansy demonstrated a perfect vanishing spell on a kitten the Professor actually gave her a warm smile and a nod.
'Well I think that's all, Laverstock… unless… would like to perform a spell of your own choosing? For a bonus point?' For a split second Tansy felt panicky but then she knew, as surely as if someone had whispered the idea in her ear, what she wanted to do. She'd found the spell in one of the Advanced Transfiguration books; it was a NEWT level transformation into a cat or a dog depending on preference. She'd never attempted it before but the bold side of her, which she hadn't known existed, won over. Before she had a chance to change her mind, she raised her wand.
'Felis silvestris,' she said clearly in her mind and shut her eyes as the floor began to rush towards her. An appreciative whoop from Professor Marchbanks told her that the spell had worked.
Flushed with her success, Tansy was escorted back to Gryffindor tower by a fifth year prefect she didn't know. As she walked through portrait hole she was immediately pulled into a quiet(ish) corner of the common room by Harry.
'How was the exam?' He asked, but continued before she had a chance to reply. 'Listen Tansy; last night Ron and I followed the spiders into the Forbidden Forest…' He went on to explain what they had found out and Tansy listened in growing astonishment. When he finally finished, she found herself speechless with shock.
'What was… oh what was Hagrid thinking?' She asked, (when she finally regained the power of speech). 'Follow the spiders! You were almost killed!' She silently thanked whatever deity or divine being had ensured that she wasn't with the boys for that particular adventure.
Ron snorted, 'it's just like Hagrid to assume that Aragog wouldn't hurt friends of his.' Harry ignored them both.
'So now we know that Hagrid is innocent; he never opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago. Oh and Tansy, we think that Moaning Myrtle was the girl killed by the monster. Aragog said she died in a bathroom.' Tansy nodded; that made a great deal of sense and it also explained why Myrtle was so attached to that particular toilet cubicle.
'So the monster is still out there somewhere and… and… the heir of Slytherin too.' She said, her feelings of elation and happiness vanishing completely. 'We're not really any closer to finding the solution are we?'
Hope you enjoy. Please Review! I know that JK said that all exams were cancelled but somehow I don't think that she meant OWLs and NEWTs.
